By Em Mills
A Tokyo-based finance expert. A former fashion model. An award-winning filmmaker. A lawyer and previous Montana senator. An international economist in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. While this list might sound like the start of a bad joke, if you put them all in a room, you'd find one thing they share: All of them previously served as presidential associates at AUC.
Beginning in 1981 with Harvard graduate Frank Packard, the program has been welcoming American fresh graduates to Egypt ever since. Kicking off with just one associate, it grew to include cohorts from across the United States interning in multiple offices at AUC, learning from both their positions and newfound context while experiencing life in Egypt.
I'm writing to you as the latest presidential associate in the 43rd year since the program's inception. I joined AUC in September 2023, and since then, I've been learning the ropes of the campus newsletter in the University's Office of Marketing Communication and Public Affairs, playing chicken with New Cairo traffic and sounding out Arabic words just to puzzle over "sandwich" for 20 minutes without realizing. Like the associates who came before me, I too have felt the humor and absurdity of adjusting to a new context, with Egypt's particularities confusing and delighting me in turn.
By the grace of the now-discontinued presidential associates newsletter, Internal Affairs, I was able to get a glimpse into some of the projects, excursions and generalized chaos that the former associates got up to during their time at AUC, alongside the diverse careers that they pursued. Reading through, I recognized many experiences I had shared and a few that I was grateful I did not, such as performing a surprise vocal solo for the provost at a dinner party.
While much has changed since the program started, some things remain consistent -- including the bond between Egypt and the associates. During an informal meetup in Cairo that included five associates from different years, it became clear that connection with the program doesn't just end at the close of the year. Katherine Patterson, currently completing her master's in energy studies at Sciences Po and a presidential associate from 2015 to 2016, put it like this, "No matter how much time passes, every so often, I seem to find myself back aboard a felucca on the Nile surrounded by other associates."
One current and four former AUC associates swap stories on a felucca in the Nile, 2023. Photo by Devon Murray 
Interns on the Nile Courtesy of the Internal Affairs newsletter
Rowaida Saad Eldin, former executive director of the Office of the President but known to the interns as the beloved "Den Mother" of the program, put her attention, care and generosity into making the experience something meaningful to both the interns and their surrounding community.
Beginning as a volunteer, as the program grew her position became official as she was named the first intern coordinator by former AUC President Richard Pedersen.
"I worked with the presidential interns, later referred to as presidential associates. I would take them around, to the places I loved. I felt so proud of the opportunity to show them Egypt -- the version of the country tourists don't usually see. I wanted them to get a full experience, not just come to work and go home. The interns themselves were also very active. They volunteered to teach refugees at St. Andrew's Church and work with kids at the Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357. Some wrote for Egyptian newspapers in English. They reached out to the community and became integrated in their own ways."
